| Halobacterium |
| SuperSet | Prokaryote, Archaea, Halophilic Archaeobacteria and Gram negative Aerobic rods and cocci |
| Compare | Haloarcula , Halobacterium, Halococcus , Haloferax ,Natronobacterium , Natronococcus occultus Eubacteria: Halomonas |
| Contrast | Methanogens Cell Wall-Less Archaeobacteria Sulfate Reducing Archaeobacteria Halophilic Archaeobacteria Extremely Thermophilic Archaeobacteria |
| Subset |
| Morphology | Halobacterium |
| CELLULAR |
| Staining | Gram-negative |
| Morphology | . rod shaped ( 90.5-1.2 um x 1.0-6.0 um) or Disc shaped ( 1.0-3.0 x 2.0- 3.0 and 0.3-0.4 um thickness Pleomorphic |
| Motility | non motile or motile by tufts of polar |
| Specialized structures | Resting stages are not known, some isolates have gas vacuoles |
| Division | cells divide by constriction |
| COLONIAL |
| Solid surface | colonies are pink-, red or red to orange and opaque to translucnet |
| Liquid |
| Growth Parameters | Halobacterium |
| PHYSIOLOGICAL |
| Tropism | chemoorganotrophic |
| Oxygen | Aerobic some strains are facultative anaerobes |
| pH | range ph 5.5-8.5 |
| Temperature | optimum 40-50 oC; no growth below 10 oC |
| Requires | amino acids required for growth requires 2.5 M NaCl (; grow best at 3.5-4.5 M NaCl. Requires 0.1-0.5 M Mg 2+ |
| Produces | |
| Enzymes | strongly proteolytic oxidase positive, catalase positve |
| Unique features | carbohydrates are not utilized CELL LYSIS OCCURS IN HYPOTONIC SOLTIONS |
| ENVIRONMENTAL |
| Habitat | neutral highly saline environments, salt alkes, marine salterns |
| Lifestyle | |
| Pathogenicity | "pink" in salt fish, "red heat" in spoiled hides, may cause spoilage of salted products |
| Distribution | ubiquitous |
| Genome | Halobacterium |
| G+C Mol % | major component 67.1-71.2 ; monor component which makes up 10-30% of the DNA 57-60 % |
| Reference | Halobacterium |
| First citation | Elazari-Volcani, B.1957 Genus XII Halobacterium. In Breed, Murray and Smith (Editors) Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology 7th Edition The Willaims and Wilkin Co. pp 207-212 |
| The Prokaryotes | |
| Bergey's Systematatic | p 262 H. Larsen p 2219 H Larsen and Wm . D. Grant |
| Bergey's Determinative | p 742 |
| References |